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Breast cancer and pregnancy: how safe is trastuzumab?

Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology volume 6, pages 367–370 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Background. A 29-year-old woman was diagnosed with lymph-node-positive, steroid-hormone-receptor-negative and HER2/neu-positive breast cancer. She underwent surgery followed by cyclophosphamide, epirubicin, and 5-fluorouracil chemotherapy, and received radiotherapy followed by trastuzumab therapy for 1 year. During the tenth month of trastuzumab therapy, the patient reported a missed period and had a positive pregnancy test.

Investigations. Physical examination, pregnancy test, echocardiography.

Diagnosis. Unintended pregnancy during adjuvant trastuzumab therapy.

Management. Cessation of trastuzumab and close monitoring of mother and fetus during pregnancy.

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Acknowledgements

H. A. Azim, Jr and F. A. Peccatori contributed equally to this work. H. A. Azim, Jr was supported by a European School of Oncology (ESO) fellowship.

Désirée Lie, University of California, Irvine, CA, is the author of and is solely responsible for the content of the learning objectives, questions and answers of the Medscape-accredited continuing medical education activity associated with this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy

    Hatem A. Azim Jr, Fedro A. Peccatori, Sarah J. Liptrott, Chiara Catania & Aron Goldhirsch

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  1. Hatem A. Azim Jr
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Correspondence to Fedro A. Peccatori.

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A. Goldhirsch receives research support from Roche. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Azim, H., Peccatori, F., Liptrott, S. et al. Breast cancer and pregnancy: how safe is trastuzumab?. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 6, 367–370 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2009.48

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